Wednesday, March 02, 2011

You're a Lebowski, I'm a Lebowski

Friedman's column is a gem, truly. I am not sure if I'm more convinced by the young Arab musing that he, too, could one day be President of the United States or by Friedman's insightful point that the problematic dispossession of the underclass by a landed aristocracy literally never occured to anyone in the entire history of humanity until the advent of Google Earth.

Posted by IOZ at 9:54 AM | email »
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20 comments:

Professor Coldheart said...

He dubbed it "Fayyadism."

10:13 AM
Anonymous said...

"Americans have never fully appreciated what a radical thing we did — in the eyes of the rest of the world — in e.lecting an African-American with the middle name Hussein as president."

Tah.

10:13 AM
IOZ said...

Because if there's one thing you can say about Americans, it's that we are reluctant to admit how important and central we are to everything.

10:18 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...

Friedman is amazing. the fallacies he wades in and has mastered are amazing. from our culture - from his own navel - flows every answer to everything ever.

10:22 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...

I wonder what we'd find if we drawed and quartered him. an American flag? red white and blue confetti? a wireless router?

10:27 AM
Leonard said...

So what's the take-home message here? ... reading down... down... ah, here:

"if we don’t have a more serious energy policy, the difference between a good day and bad day for America from here on will hinge on how the 86-year-old king of Saudi Arabia manages all this change."

Ah, so it's all about the oil.

Yes! Because, as we all know, we get most of our oil from nasty regimes, nasty regimes won't sell us oil, oil is not fungible, and there is no world market for it.

Such danger! We must, must, now do whatever Tommy F. tells us is a "more serious energy policy"... I'm sure he'd condescend to be our "energy czar" if we'd just empower him to control all energy markets, energy corporations, private-market investments in energy, etc. You know, like they can in China. They know how to do things in China!

10:28 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...

drawn and quartered? come on coffee don't fail me now

10:49 AM
drip said...

I was OK with drawed because drew didn't seem right. Either way, I think a cab driver would pop out.

10:54 AM
Montag said...

-he was drawn and quartered yesterday.
-he is to be drawn and quartered later today.
-we are drawing and quartering him right now.
-we are to draw and quarter him.
-what if we drew and quartered him?

I wonder what we'd find if we were to draw and quarter him.

11:02 AM
Justin said...

I can't take credit for flagging this other Friedman nugget because I intentionally do not read Friedman these days, but here is a goldmine of a Friedman thinking.

He kicks off an article about Egypt with a riff on the Las Vegas tagline, engages in some Orientalism, and then gets down right silly.

For instance, I love what appears to be a pretty extreme prescription that Americans learn how to speak "Egypt's democracy movement's" language, don't worry though, we don't have to learn Arabic, Friedman just means we should send a hundred million their way.

I think he started having an acid flashback toward the end of the column, right about where he says that if he were walking along the Nile in Sydney, Singapore or Istanbul, the government would have built a boardwalk for him to walk upon.

11:10 AM
drip said...

Too late, I'm afraid. I drew him in the quarter final round of the C Squash ladder. That was enough

11:17 AM
mistah charley, ph.d. said...

Add it all up and what does it say? It says you have a very powerful convergence of forces driving a broad movement for change. It says we’re just at the start of something huge.

as Steve Allen sang, This could be the start of something big.

And did you know

a)that Steve Allen was his real name?
b)that another song of his, "The Gravy Waltz," won a Grammy award in 1963 for Best Jazz Composition?

11:54 AM
Happy Jack said...

back-of-the-envelope

I think he's been writing this stuff with Elmer's and dried macaroni.

1:06 PM
Anonymous said...

"Chinese had to give up freedom but got economic growth and decent government in return."
HaaaaHaaaaaHaaaaaHaaaa...
As the great observer of the American scene, Bugs Bunny said, "What a maroon!"

1:08 PM
Anonymous said...

HaaaaHaaaaaHaaaaaHaaaa...

I guess there's something absurd in teasing the imbecilic from the merely stupid in a Friedman piece, but the bit on 'Fayadism' really makes no sense even on Friedman's own idiotic terms.

1:16 PM
Anonymous said...

Do you think Friedman's life is so insular that he has no idea how many people think he is a complete jackass? His column reads like someone who wants to taunt people who think he's a jackass.

1:56 PM
Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, in Beltway circles and lots of other places, Friedman really is considered to be some kind of insightful visionary. I'm sure that his interview schedule is booked for the forseeable future. Guys who can spew horseshit with sincerity are never without lucrative employment, in America or anywhere else.
-- sglover

2:51 PM
Enron said...

So according to the Special One, Egyptians had no problem with Yisroyel prior to the advent of Al Jazeera. Insightful.

3:20 PM
stillnotking said...

Ever read The Phantom Tollbooth? Friedman = the Humbug.

8:07 PM
Anonymous said...

That column actually written by Glenn Beck.

11:55 PM

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